Re: Decreasing WAL size effects - Mailing list pgsql-general

* Aidan Van Dyk <aidan@highrise.ca> [081031 15:11]:
> How about something like the attached.  It's been spun quickly, passed
> regression tests, and some simple hand tests on REL8_3_STABLE.  It seem slike
> HEAD can't  initdb on my machine (quad opteron with SW raid1), I tried a few
> revision in the last few days, and initdb dies on them all...

OK, HEAD does work, I don't know what was going on previosly... Attached is my
patch against head.

I'll try and pull out some machines on Monday to really thrash/crash this but
I'm running out of time today to set that up.

But in running head, I've come accross this:
    regression=# SELECT pg_stop_backup();
    WARNING:  pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (60 seconds elapsed)
    WARNING:  pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (120 seconds elapsed)
    WARNING:  pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (240 seconds elapsed)

My archive script is *not* running, it ran and exited:
    mountie@pumpkin:~/projects/postgresql/PostgreSQL/src/test/regress$ ps -ewf | grep post
    mountie   2904     1  0 16:31 pts/14   00:00:00
/home/mountie/projects/postgresql/PostgreSQL/src/test/regress/tmp_check/install/usr/local/pgsql
    mountie   2906  2904  0 16:31 ?        00:00:01 postgres: writer process
    mountie   2907  2904  0 16:31 ?        00:00:00 postgres: wal writer process
    mountie   2908  2904  0 16:31 ?        00:00:00 postgres: archiver process   last was 00000001000000000000001F
    mountie   2909  2904  0 16:31 ?        00:00:01 postgres: stats collector process
    mountie   2921  2904  1 16:31 ?        00:00:18 postgres: mountie regression 127.0.0.1(56455) idle

Those all match up:
    mountie@pumpkin:~/projects/postgresql/PostgreSQL/src/test/regress$ pstree -acp 2904
    postgres,2904 -D/home/mountie/projects/postgres
      ├─postgres,2906
      ├─postgres,2907
      ├─postgres,2908
      ├─postgres,2909
      └─postgres,2921

strace on the "archiver process" postgres:
    select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
    getppid()                               = 2904
    select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
    getppid()                               = 2904
    select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
    getppid()                               = 2904
    select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
    getppid()                               = 2904
    select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
    getppid()                               = 2904

It *does* finally finish, postmaster log looks like ("Archving ..." is what my
archive script prints, bytes is the gzip'ed size):
    Archiving 000000010000000000000016 [16397 bytes]
    Archiving 000000010000000000000017 [4405457 bytes]
    Archiving 000000010000000000000018 [3349243 bytes]
    Archiving 000000010000000000000019 [3349505 bytes]
    LOG:  ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 27 from 7954432 - 16777216 [8822784 bytes]
    Archiving 00000001000000000000001A [3349590 bytes]
    Archiving 00000001000000000000001B [1596676 bytes]
    LOG:  ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 28 from 8192 - 16777216 [16769024 bytes]
    Archiving 00000001000000000000001C [16398 bytes]
    LOG:  ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 29 from 8192 - 16777216 [16769024 bytes]
    Archiving 00000001000000000000001D [16397 bytes]
    LOG:  ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 30 from 8192 - 16777216 [16769024 bytes]
    Archiving 00000001000000000000001E [16393 bytes]
    Archiving 00000001000000000000001E.00000020.backup [146 bytes]
    WARNING:  pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (60 seconds elapsed)
    WARNING:  pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (120 seconds elapsed)
    WARNING:  pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete (240 seconds elapsed)
    LOG:  ZEROING xlog file 0 segment 31 from 8192 - 16777216 [16769024 bytes]
    Archiving 00000001000000000000001F [16395 bytes]


So what's this "pg_stop_backup still waiting for archive to complete" for 5
minutes state?  I've not seen that before (runing 8.2 and 8.3).

a.
--
Aidan Van Dyk                                             Create like a god,
aidan@highrise.ca                                       command like a king,
http://www.highrise.ca/                                   work like a slave.